Thai curry with Mona Lisa on the side

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It started out innocently enough. That fancy you get for something you have eaten before that really hits the spot, when it’s done right. Every cuisine we are used to finding in the UK is available in Dubai so for the past few weeks I have been on a quest to track down a dish I know is out there. The Thai green chicken curry of my dreams. (more…)

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A brolly for all seasons

p Albert Edelfelt (Finnish painter, 1884-1905) Woman and Parasol, 1886

I’ve come over all 19th century genteel in the last few weeks. Since the temperature in Dubai now regularly hits 40 plus I am taking a bit more care before I casually step outdoors. Moving too fast through a fan-heater-on-high-environment transforms this milky white English skin into a shade akin to boiled lobster in a few minutes. (more…)

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A guest for Ramadan

5 Guys Light

The American fast food chain 5 Guys has been announcing its imminent arrival to Downtown on giant hoardings for months. I am grateful that it waited till we were out of the country to finally open its doors to an eager crowd.

Sadly, this eyesore occupies a prime location at the entrance to Dubai Mall and within sight of the famous fountains. With so many better and more comfortable dining options close by it is astonishing how many people are willing to queue for a burger, hot dog and fries at all hours of the day. Change, if only for a month, is on the horizon though and this is one reason I am looking forward to experiencing my first Ramadan as a guest in Dubai. (more…)

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Slow boat to Dubai

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Nearly three months ago a section of our front room back in Harrogate resembled the setting for a weird kind of car boot sale. A collection of random household objects were piled up in preparation for a journey into the unknown. Our trusty removal firm (ha!) told us that shipping would take five weeks max so we should provide a delivery address in Dubai soon after our arrival.

As we left home with no fixed abode in Dubai we had visions of the whole lot arriving whilst we were still residing in a small hotel room. With that thought in mind we felt we had no time to waste in getting ourselves settled into a suitable apartment. We needn’t have worried. (more…)

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Chickens, hens, eggs and chocolate

Chicken, hens and chocolate eggs

The title might suggest a bit of an Easter theme but I am not about to launch into a post on new beginnings, rebirth, fluffy animals or indeed, chocolate. The chocolate in the title was trespassing on serious cheesecake territory and the egg was more spherical than ovoid. Confused? Me too. It’s these misleading menu descriptions. They do it to me every time. They lull you into thinking that you know what you ordered. Too late, you realise that chef, in a burst of madcap inspiration (culinary genius that he is) has deconstructed your favourite dessert. The clues were there after all. I might have guessed that the passion fruit and yuzu cheesecake sounded too good to be true.

When the waiter leaned in, eyes reverently lifted skywards, whispering that chef’s ‘signature dish’ is a not a ‘traditional’ interpretation, my internal dessert alarm went to red alert. Afters was about to go down the Swanee. (more…)

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Brunch at the Billion Pound Hotel

Burj Al Arab 1

Before we made the decision to move to Dubai we came out for a week’s ‘recce’ to see if this was for us. Even before we got here the symbol of Dubai, the stunning Burj Al Arab hotel with its distinctive exterior design, based on a ship’s sail, cast a spell. There it was in the pages of the flight magazine and it kept hoving into view all week. When we checked into our somewhat less exclusive hotel we discovered that the rooftop bar afforded a tantalising view of this iconic structure. (more…)

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Let’s do brunch!

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The UAE working week is Sunday to Thursday and I thought it would take me ages to get used to thinking of Sunday as a working day. Not a problem. I’ve come to realise you can take pretty much anything in your stride if the sun is shining. The weekends appear to come round a bit faster, if anything, over here and the Thursday night traffic suggests that people would like to get their weekend underway even sooner, if they could just get to their destination in time for the party. (more…)

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Taste for local knowledge

I have been uncharacteristically quiet on the subject of food since we landed here. Holed up in a hotel for two weeks brought some highs and lows on the eating front, particularly as we have been staying at one of Dubai’s less grand establishments on a bed, breakfast and dinner basis. We haven’t always taken dinner though – two days in we gave the ‘dish of the day’ a whirl and what they did to a poor innocent piece of tuna scared us off. Overcooked, to the consistency of a rubber ball it was hard to believe it was once a fish. It was almost impossible to swallow which is quite a feat of achievement on the chef’s part. Luckily, we could fill up on the salad buffet which, save for an overcooked pasta creation, had been prepared with minimal interference from the kitchen. (more…)

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Footloose in the Mall

I am itching to move in to our apartment but will have to wait a few more days until Tim’s residency visa and Emirates ID come through. In the meantime I decide to spend a day in the Downtown area to see what the Old Town development is like on an average day and how I might fit in to my new environment.  Is it even as nice as I remember it was? (more…)

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